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2,4-D RESISTANT CROP EIS EXPECTED TODAY: USDA is expected to release today its draft environmental impact statement for corn and soybean products developed by Dow AgroSciences that have been genetically engineered to be resistant to the herbicide 2,4-D, an ingredient in agent orange that has long been targeted by environmental groups for its potentially harmful effects. The EIS stems from three Dow petitions — filed in 2011 and 2013 — for deregulation by USDA of the products, which would allow for them to enter the market.

The proposed crops, which are part of Dow’s Enlist Weed Control System and would be resistant to 2,4-D in addition to other herbicides, have been touted by the company as a solution to the growing resistance of weeds across the Midwest to glyphosate and other chemicals. However, environmental groups and food safety advocates argue the products will just increase resistance and result in the increased use of older and more toxic pesticides.

USDA has told groups that the release of the EIS “could happen as early as [Friday],” Colin O’Neil, director of government affairs for the Center for Food Safety, tells MA. The department announced in May that it would be conducting a more rigorous EIS for the 2,4-D resistant products instead of a standard environmental assessment to meet the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act, in order to gain “a comprehensive environmental analysis of the potential selection of 2,4-D resistant weeds and other potential environmental impacts” that could result from deregulation, he notes.

MEAT AND GRAIN CHANGES FINALIZED: “The change the Department of Agriculture announced Thursday night represents one of the rarest of moments: a new rule related to the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act that will not result in a brawl between the food industry and consumer advocacy groups,” Pro’s Tarini Parti reports.

As early as today, USDA is expected to publish in the Federal Register its plan to make permanent a one-year-old interim rule that allows schools more flexibility in serving larger portions of lean protein and whole grains. USDA says the change was called for in many of the 173 comments it received on the interim rule, including those from school food authorities. And it seems the proposals are largely supported, Parti writes. The full story is available here: http://politico.pro/1g4DEnN

CHEERIOS GO GMO FREE: Original Cheerios sold in the U.S. are now made without genetically modified ingredients, the company announced on its website yesterday, a move that responds to consumer concerns over GMO ingredients. But don’t expect other varieties of Cheerios to do the same. The company has been in the process of sourcing conventional sugar and corn starch — there are no genetically modified varieties of oats, the cereal’s main ingredient — and making other necessary changes for about a year, and production started several weeks ago, a General Mills spokesman tells MA. However, there are no plans to do the same for other varieties of Cheerios since some contain corn, and “the widespread use of [GMO] crops” would make sourcing ingredients for those products “near impossible,” the spokesman adds. The FAQ is available here: http://bit.ly/190sBwA

The anti-GMO group GMO Inside called the move “a huge victory for the non-GMO movement” in a statement released late yesterday. The group has been calling on Cheerios to go GMO free since November of 2012, encouraging consumers to pressure its parent company General Mills to source conventional and organic ingredients due to what the group says is environmental and health concerns with GMO crops. The statement is available here: http://bit.ly/1lDjO4d

GROUPS TAKE ISSUE WITH FDA’S TRANS FAT ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: The FDA is severely underestimating the potential economic benefit of eliminating partially hydrogenated oils from the food supply, the Center for Effective Government argues in a comment recently posted to regulations.gov. The group points to a Nov. 5 FDA memo from Richard Bruns, a staff economist, to Mical Honigfort, a consumer safety officer, and says the analysis’s methodology underestimates the economic benefit that could be gained from reducing fatal heart attacks by not adequately factoring in the full value of a statistical life. For example, CEG says 5,000 heart attack deaths averted would be $8.8 billion-$12 billion in benefits using the Bruns methodology, but the group believes the benefits would actually be in the $31.7 billion-41.3 billion range. The comment is available here: http://1.usa.gov/1bCAovp

CONFEREE SAYS 'TWEAKING' NEEDED BEFORE FARM BILL COMPLETE: Rep. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) said the new farm bill is essentially finished and only in need of some “tweaking” as lawmakers prepare to return to Capitol Hill next week after their holiday break. Noem, one of the 41 farm bill conferees who are expected to vote on a unified House-Senate farm bill this month, told constituents in an email that most of the work is finished, but notably did not commit to a January goal for completion as many lawmakers have.

“The lead farm bill negotiators have outlined the reforms they agree can be made in the bill,” she said in the email. “Right before Christmas, they got estimates back to see how much these reforms would cost — or in some cases, save. Now, it’s a matter of tweaking the bill to make sure all the numbers add up, but we are on track to finish a comprehensive five-year farm bill during the first part of 2014.”

EPA, ADVOCACY GROUPS APPEAL CAFO STORMWATER RUNOFF RULING: EPA and five environmental and/or food safety groups have appealed a West Virginia federal court ruling that a poultry farm is exempt from Clean Water Act permit requirements for stormwater runoff. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, on Dec. 23, consolidated four appeals of the decision by U.S. District Court Judge John Preston Baily, for the Northern District of West Virginia, in Lois Alt, et al., v. EPA. The appeals were filed separately a few days earlier by: EPA; the Center for Food Safety and Food and Water Watch; Potomac River Keeper and West Virginia Rivers Coalition; and the Waterkeeper Alliance.

Baily, on Oct. 23, ruled in favor of poultry farmer Alt in her suit against EPA, finding that the regulatory agency erred when, in 2011, it found her in violation of CWA National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System requirements. The agency had cited Alt’s poultry concentrated animal feeding operation for unpermitted stormwater discharges as feathers and other materials that settled in farm yard and crop areas were being washed into local streams.

ANIMAL WELFARE GARNERING BIG STARS, MONEY: Once considered a fringe issue and limited to a small group of activists, the push for animal welfare laws has gone mainstream with the help of big money and big celebrity endorsements from the likes of Ryan Gosling, Bill Gates and Martha Stewart, Parti reports this morning.

The Humane Society of the United States, which is undisputedly the largest of animal welfare advocacy groups, now has 700 employees in 46 states. The nonprofit’s annual reports show an organization that has grown steadily from $131 million in 2008 to $180 million at the end of 2012. And, aided by its growing war chest and celebrity endorsements, the group appears to be winning more battles. HSUS secured a settlement of more than $155 million — the largest ever in an animal abuse case — in November against a dairy cow slaughter plant that was cited for animal cruelty, though the government lowered that to $3.1 million because of the plant’s financial problems. Get the full story here here: http://politico.pro/1iyuXWX

BOURBON PAC FILES PAPERS: Bourbon PAC, a new political action committee, has filed with the FEC, representing the Kentucky Distillers Association. Bourbon PACs founders were not available to comment on the PACs plans, but if it follows on the heels of BeamPAC, the action committee of Jim Beam and Makers Mark parent company Bean Inc., which will target candidates who support lower alcohol taxes and who vote in favor of free trade agreements. Ninety-five percent of the world’s bourbon is made in Kentucky, and the Bourbon Trail is a tourist attraction, bringing in a half a million visitors per year.